


The Magic of Mistfall

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2019-02-23 13:54:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13191483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: The gang and their partners explore Mistfall. Zelda belongs to ZDusk, Jack belongs to SSO-Jack-Wolfwatcher, Izabella belongs to hollow_moon, Liv belongs to liv-olive on tumblr, Esmeralda belongs to Shadowlord13, Alessa belongs to sso-duskhill on tumblr, Dunya belongs to Zebrablanket, and Elsa belongs to twracehorse on tumblr.





	The Magic of Mistfall

**Author's Note:**

> Edited to change Syntax's pronouns, please let me know if I missed anything.

It had been a noisy group that had waited outside the Mistfall tunnel to be permitted entrance, and who had chattered away excitedly while Rania had walked up to the man in charge of quarantine and handed him the letter that said simply ‘I do what I want’. But it was a hushed group that actually walked through the tunnel. In this place, with its walls, floor, and ceiling of dirt, and the sunbeams that Izabella had dubbed ‘godrays’, nobody felt like breaking the reverent silence. It was like a natural temple.

“It’s like we’re explorers entering a forgotten land for the first time,” Zelda whispered.

“Actually, Rania’s just up ahead of us with Dellingr and Dr Eiren,” said Justin from where he sat behind her on Phantom. They didn’t want to risk retrieving his horse yet, nor did they want to reunite horse and rider when they’d only be torn apart again when the druids inevitably found out and threw Justin back in jail.

“Oi, let her have this moment, you jerk,” said Jack.

“Jack, be nice,” Ydris tutted from where he sat on his pony beside his fiance. 

“Annd the moment’s gone, never mind,” said Zelda with a sigh as she continued riding Phantom at a walk through the new area. She turned to her friend, who was currently the tallest and bulkiest of the group on her Jorvik Wild Horse. “How come Mossie isn’t green yet? This is her home, isn’t it?”

“She’s shy around the quarantine guys, and honestly, can you blame her?” said Louisa, petting her mare’s neck. Mossleaf nickered, rolling her eyes.

“I wonder if we’ll see any other Jorvik Wild Horses here,” said Lisa. “I hope we do.”

“I do too,” said Ydris. “Both to see Jack’s face when he sees them, and because it would be… nice to see magical creatures in a magical place.”

“Aww, you two are adorable,” Zelda cooed.

“Sickening, more like,” said Liv, who rode a little ahead of them.

“You’re just prickly because your boyfriend couldn’t come,” said Zelda.

“Serves him right for being a lazy fuck,” said Liv.

The group rode on in silence for a while, content to simply enjoy their new surroundings at a slow pace and take plenty of photos. The silence was only broken by the sound of magic accompanied by a flash of light as Mossleaf revealed her true colours. There was much cooing and adoration in the group, though Syntax looked a little startled and had to reach for their inhaler.

“Syntax, you live in Jorvik, how is this surprising to you?” said Izabella with a roll of her eyes as her partner rode his quiet little Morgan horse away from the flashing, magical horse. It was actually Luna, one of Izabella’s horses, and she now rode Comet, a silvery Mustang.

“I thought the horses, at least, would be normal,” said Syntax.

“Don’t say a word, Starshine,” Lisa muttered out of earshot of Syntax, and Starshine nickered while Louisa giggled. But someone else had better hearing.

“Wait,” said Rania, who’d moved back to ride at the head of the group. She held up a hand, halting Dellingr. “Can you hear that?”

“Hear what?” asked Dr Eiren.

“I think it’s coming from over here,” said Rania, riding over to a tree where a small creature cowered at the base of it.

“That’s a wolf,” said Shadow, quickly riding up to the base of the tree and dismounting. She slowly approached the wolf, holding a hand out.

“Wow, you have good hearing,” said the vet, looking appreciatively at Rania.

“Well, I’ve gotta make up for my lack of sight somehow,” said Rania with a roll of her sightless eyes. She dismounted with surprising ease for a blind girl, then walked over to the clearly-ailing animal, holding a hand out like Shadow was.

“Careful, don’t get too close,” Shadow murmured.

“Good idea,” said Rania, leaning back. “I think getting too close is how I got those wolves chasing me in the first place.”

“There’s something wrong with it,” said Shadow, moving her hand as close to the wolf as she dared. The wolf growled, and Shadow snatched her hand back, then turned her head slightly, still keeping the wolf in her line of sight. “Lisa, do you think you can heal it?”

“I’d be a pretty shit Soul Rider if I couldn’t,” said Lisa, dismounting Starshine and carefully walking closer to the wolf. She held her hand out, but not just to soothe the wolf. A pink glow surrounded her hand, then poured over the wolf, making the creature growl.

“That’s better, it smells and sounds better now,” said Rania. The wolf growled louder.

“Now it just sounds angry,” said Alessa. Syntax cried out and took off, riding Luna far faster than Izabella had taught them.

“Damn it,” Izabella muttered, and took off after them. The rest soon followed, but not because they were going after Syntax- no, it was because the wolf had given chase. The ground trembled under the thundering hooves, but they could still hear the howls of the entire wolf pack even over that sound.

“Shadow, you’re the mother of wolves, do something!” Jack cried.

“You do something, Disney prince!” Shadow shouted back at him, trying to keep Dancer away from those snapping jaws.

They were cornered at a paddock. Wolves were both in front of and behind them, with the ocean on one side and a paddock and mountain on the other. They were trapped. And then-

“Yah! Back, you beasts!” a woman’s voice shouted, and a woman on another Haflinger rode into the group, wielding an axe. She threw it, and it barely missed a wolf, but it did the job of causing the animals to scatter. Then, the woman looked at the group. Specifically, at one girl in particular.

“Mama!” said Rania, and, for a girl who’d just escaped wolves three times that day, Rania sounded like a terrified child at the arrival of her mother. The woman glared at her daughter, not that Rania could see it.

“Rania Varanger, you are in big trouble, young lady,” said the woman.

“Uh oh,” Rania murmured, but then she got her fire back. “But mama, I-“

“No buts, young lady,” said her mother. “You’re coming home with me, right now.”

“Ugh, fine,” said Rania. She turned to the group, where she could hear the laboured breathing of the horses around her. “Sorry, guys, I’ve gotta go home.”

“That’s okay,” said Alessa, smiling. “It was quite an adventure, and you got us in here.”

“Yes, and that’s better than anything a lot of other people have done for us,” said Zelda. “Hope you don’t get in too much trouble.”

“Oh, don’t worry, she will,” said Rania’s mother, and turned to lead her daughter back into the village.

“Well, shall we stay in one group or all split up?” asked Ydris.

“I dunno about the rest of you lot, but I’m going to see the wild animals,” said Jack. Rania turned around in her saddle.

“Oh, Jack, if you like animals, you’ll love Kit’s Cuddle Cottage,” Rania called. “She has more foxes than she knows what to do with.” Jack gasped, and the fox at Dale’s hooves (who had leaped into the saddlebag when the wolves had descended) pricked her ears up.

“I want to see where Mossie feels comfortable,” said Louisa.

“I want to see if we can find those lakes again,” said Justin. Zelda blushed, remembering long days and nights spent by the lake.

“And what about you lot?” asked Zelda, looking at Alessa, Shadow, Eden, Elsa, Izabella, Syntax, and Liv.

“Wolves,” said Shadow simply.

“I’ll just ride around and explore,” said Alessa.

“Same here,” said Eden, nodding in agreement. Elsa nodded too.

“I wonder why this place is closed off,” said Izabella, riding over to a quarantine fence that she could see. It closed off a section that had a lake, a dock, and large lilypads.

“And I wonder what this place is,” said Louisa, riding over to a cute little cottage. She dismounted Mossleaf, who immediately set about filling her belly with this new grass. Louisa tried the doorhandle, then stepped inside. Lisa followed suit after dismounting Starshine.

Somehow, Izabella and Liv managed to slip through the quarantine fence.

“I don’t think you guys should go in there,” said Syntax, standing nervously on the ‘right’ side of the fence.

“Pussy!” Liv taunted. Izabella laughed, and Syntax blushed, took in a deep breath, and easily slipped between the fences because they were a skinny little nerd.

“Now, how do we get out horses over here?” asked Izabella, walking around. She spied a shore across a stream that was not blocked off, and whistled. “Luna, Comet, Cop, get over here!”

The three horses cantered over to the edge of the stream, backed up, then took turns jumping over. Comet landed right in the middle of the stream, making a huge splash, and began to flail around. Izabella clicked her tongue, walking to the edge of the stream, and Comet finally managed to get his hooves under him and clambered up onto the shore. Luna also flailed around like a drama queen in the middle of the lake until Izabella rescued her by guiding her out by the bridle, and then Cop showed them all up by leaping elegantly over the stream and landing with his back hooves just in the water.

“Show off,” Izabella muttered while Liv smiled and petted her horse’s nose.

In the village of Dundull, Ydris was trying his hardest (and failing) to not look jealous as Jack cooed over the foxes and gushed about them with Kit. Ydris was surprised that the woman wasn’t sporting a pair of fox ears or at least a fox tail.

“Well, Halli, I guess it’s just you and me now,” said Ydris, and then looked down to his feet where Halli had been only to find that she was gone. He looked across the way and saw the fox playing with the smaller mistfoxes. “Traitor!” Halli ignored him, and Ydris sighed and sat down on a bench after moving several mistfoxes. A silver one climbed into his lap, which he petted because he wasn’t that much of a dick.

Deep in the woods, Shadow had somehow found the wolf den right away. While most people would have wisely kept their distance, Shadow approached the wolves with her hand out after putting her horse a safe distance away. Alessa and Eden followed, as did Elsa. They’d faced down Darko (and three of them were dating ‘monsters’), so a pack of injured wolves didn’t scare them. Even if they had just surrounded them about half an hour ago.

“Hey there,” said Shadow softly. A wolf picked its head up sluggishly, blinking slowly at her. It whined. “What’s wrong, baby, how are you hurt?” she crooned as she approached. Alessa stayed on one side of her while Elsa was on her other side. Eden was behind them, ready to run for help if need be. And then she stepped on a stick.

Though the wolves had looked sluggish, lying around on rocks and in the cave or in the sunlight, they now came alive, jumping up and snapping and snarling at the girls.

“Oops,” said Eden.

“Run!” Race cried, doing just that as she ran out of the cave and jumped onto her Morgan Rebel.

The four of them raced away from the wolf den, the wolves hot on their heels, and Eden cried out as a wolf snapped rather close to Phoenix’s hooves. The horses were fast, all of them fully trained, but the wolves were scared and angry. And possibly rabid, because who knew what was wrong with them? This had been a stupid idea from the start.

Just when things seemed most dire, the crack of a gunshot broke through the trees, scaring the wolves and, unfortunately, horses. Eden just caught a glimpse of a handsome young man on horseback before Phoenix reared suddenly and she fell. Pain flared in her body as she hit the forest floor.

“Ow, ow, ow,” Eden hissed through clenched teeth as she sat up where she’d fallen in the ditch. Nothing seemed broken, but her ankle was throbbing, and her ribs weren’t faring much better. Good thing she’d been wearing her helmet.

“Woah there, hey, are you alright?” asked a handsome young voice, and Eden’s breath caught in her throat as she turned her head to see the man from before looking at her.

“I am now,” Eden whispered. The young man smiled, and Eden would have swooned if that wouldn’t mean smacking her head on a tree root.

“Come on, let’s help you up,” said the young man, holding out a gloved hand. He had very long fingers, Eden noticed as she took it. And then-

“Ow!” Eden cried out as she tried to put weight on her left ankle. She stumbled, but the young man caught her.

“Easy there, I think you must’ve sprained your ankle in the fall, maybe when you fell off your horse,” said the young man. All Eden could feel now was his hands on her. But-

“My horse, is he okay?” asked Eden while the young man wrapped an arm around her waist to steady her.

“Yes, I saw him run over to your friends over there,” said the young man, nodding to where the other three riders stood. Phoenix had his head lowered, his ears down in a look of pure sorrow.

“It’s okay, I know he didn’t mean it,” said Eden, smiling. She would be sure to thank Phoenix later with many carrots for introducing her to this handsome young man.

“They never do,” said the young man. “Now, come on, let’s get some ice on your ankle. I’m Alonso, by the way.”

“I’m Eden,” said Eden, fighting the impulse to say ‘I’m single’. She blushed as Alonso took her up to a cabin, carrying her the rest of the way when it became clear that her ankle was too tender to put weight on and she’d only hurt herself more limping the entire way. Eden only glanced behind herself once, and saw her three friends giving her thumbs ups and big grins. Even Phoenix looked quite proud of himself, tossing his mane. Eden grinned, leaning on Alonso for support.

Justin and Zelda had found a lake, but it wasn’t the one that they’d been to before. This one was smaller, or at least, the part that they could access was small. But it still looked quite nice. Phantom stood on the shore, while Zelda and Justin stood with their shoes and socks off and their feet in the water.

“Pity we can’t get to the rest of it,” said Justin.

“Yeah, but if this is all we can get for now, we’ll take it,” said Zelda, squeezing his hand and smiling at him. But Justin was frowning at something on the lake.

“How did those two get on there?” asked Justin, seeing Izabella and Liv on the large lilypads that decorated the lake. Syntax stayed on the shore, pacing and fretting over their girlfriend.

“Beats me,” said Zelda. She looked around. The quarantine fences stopped them from getting any further into the lake. “Did they swim across? Hey, Dizz, how’d you get on there?”

“Come around here and we’ll show you,” said Liv, hopping back across the lilypads (which were somehow able to hold the weight of two horses and their riders).

Zelda climbed back into Phantom’s saddle, Justin jumping up behind her, and rode through the small tunnel and around to the stretch of grass across the stream from the area where Syntax stood.

After jumping across, Zelda and Justin sat on the end of the small dock, their feet in the water, smiling as they held hands and enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere. Of course, it wasn’t that peaceful, especially when Izabella pushed Liv into the water, but it was nice just to sit here in this nice place and not be in prison or hiding from the druids.

About an hour later, the group all met up again near Dundull stables, where quite a few of them were joining the queue to board their horses here. Lisa and Louisa snuck in last, looking quite sheepish.

“Unbelievable,” said Liv, folding her arms over her chest and looking at them with judgement in her brown eyes.

“You would’ve done the same if your boyfriend was here,” said Louisa.

“No I wouldn’t, you perverts,” said Liv. But her anger was muted, knowing that Louisa would take it seriously and get upset.

“Kit has so many foxes,” said Jack, his eyes huge. Ydris rolled his eyes with a smirk, holding his fiance’s hand warmly as the two sat on a bench.

“We had a nice day too,” said Zelda. “We didn’t find the lake, but we found a lake.”

“And lilypads,” said Izabella.

“I found the most amazing guy,” said Eden with a loving sigh.

“Any luck with the wolves?” asked Jack, looking to the group who’d gone wolf-spotting.

“They’re actually how we met Alonso,” said Shadow, blushing. Zelda laughed. Ydris got up and walked over to Louisa, gesturing for her to follow him away out of earshot of the group.

“Tell me, Louisa, that cabin over there by the lake is empty, isn’t it?” asked Ydris.

“Last time I checked, yeah,” said Louisa. “Maybe knock first, though, and use your ears.”

“And don’t take too long,” said Lisa. “That place has no locks.”

“You took an hour,” said Ydris.

“Yeah, well, we don’t have any dicks to put away,” said Louisa. “Go on, have fun with your fiancé.”

“I will,” said Ydris, giving her a grateful smile as he went to collect his fiancé, who was gazing mournfully at the one red fox Kit had up for sale.

The group spent the rest of the day exploring and relaxing in Mistfall and Dundull, looking at the new clothes and accessories and trying fresh blueberries and cloudberries. A few times, the couples peeled away to go somewhere more private, but Liv only teased them light-heartedly until Izabella told her (accompanied with a not-so-gentle punch to the shoulder) to leave them alone.

Stein appeared after lunch, riding a Hanoverian borrowed from Jorvik Stables out of the trailer.

“Hi,” said Stein, grinning sheepishly. “I finally finished all my chores.”

“About time, you idiot,” said Liv, walking over to where he’d dismounted in the stableyard. She wrapped her arms around her boyfriend, though, smiling.

“There’s no stable chores board here,” said Stein, looking around the stableyard. “It’s not as impressive as Jorvik Stables but it looks really nice.”

“Yeah, well, maybe the people here aren’t lazy fucks like you,” said Liv, holding her boyfriend’s hand. “C’mon, the others are in the woods, I’ll show you around.”

When night fell, most of the group looked at the fireflies in awe. But three of the girls vanished, two to meet up with a small boat that was currently docking at the large pier. The young woman steering the boat stepped up first, then skipped forward a step and threw her arms around Alessa.

“Hello there, my darling Lea,” said Dunya, her red eyes glowing dimly in the darkness. Alessa couldn’t help but smile.

Darko actually took the time to dock the boat properly, then he climbed up onto the wooden pier and approached his girlfriend, who wrapped her arms around him happily.

“I’m glad you made it,” said Shadow. Darko had even dressed differently for this ‘stealth mission’, wearing a black turtleneck and black tracksuit pants. At least he wasn’t wearing black gloves and a black beanie, then he’d look suspicious.

“I had to come see this new place with my darling Shadow,” said Darko, running his fingers through her lovely long hair. “Is it truly as nice as the posters say?”

“It’s absolutely beautiful,” said Shadow. “There are wolves, you’ll love it.”

“Wolves?” asked Dunya, snapping her head up from where it had been resting on her girlfriend’s shoulder. “What wolves?”

“Dunya, no,” said Alessa, looking at her sternly.

“Dunya, yes,” Dunya countered, still looking at Shadow. “What wolves, Shadow?”

“They’re sick, I wouldn’t go near them if I were you,” said Shadow. “I’m strong and I love wolves, but they almost ate me for lunch.”

“Then it’s a good thing I have mastery over all beasts,” said Dunya.

“You really don’t,” said Alessa. Dunya pouted.

“Then it will be my new project,” said Dunya. “By the time I am at my full strength, all of Jorvik will bow before me, even the animals.”

“I will do my best to help you in this endeavour,” said Darko.

“Don’t encourage her,” Alessa muttered.

As one group of friends sat around a campfire, chatting and laughing and roasting marshmallows, the two couples sat near another fire, cuddled up in their respective pairs and just enjoying the ambience.

And, in the middle of the deep woods, Elsa sat on Rebel and clutched the amulet that she wore around her throat, willing her ghastly beau to make an appearance. For hours, he didn’t come. But she’d set up a tent, anticipating a long wait. She was willing to wait all night if need be.

And then, there came the distinct sound of trampling hooves, crackling flames, and demonic neighing. And Elsa grinned, opening her eyes upon the sight of the headless horseman, now with a new forest to explore.


End file.
